Over Rs 10 lakh cr invested in telecom sector: COAI

New Delhi May 17 (IANS) Players in the telecom industry have so far invested Rs 10.4 lakh crore in India the Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) said here on Thursday. The COAI in a statement said: "Rs 10.4 lakh crore have been invested so far by Telecom Service Providers (TSP) in building a world class telecom infrastructure." "More than 3 lakh base transceiver stations (BTS) were added in last one year taking the total count to 17.64 lakh BTS " it added.The proliferation of telecom infrastructure in the rural and remote areas has resulted in efficient connectivity and improved usability of telecom services according to COAI. "TSPs had already established infrastructural blue-print for services ranging from 3G to 4G now they are taking adequate measures to build the foundation for emerging technologies such as 5G Artificial Intelligence (AI) IoT (Internet of Things) M2M (Machine-to-Machine) and so on " it said.On the occasion of World Telecommunication and Information Society Day the industry body further said it believes India would be one of the fastest adopters of AI-based services. "AI is a crucial enabler for achieving the national goals in the areas of healthcare education and capacity building " said Rajan S. Mathews Director General of COAI adding that "with a positive ecosystem driven by better connectivity and a financially robust sectoral health AI will unveil possibilities hitherto unparalleled."